AT the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio
On Friday, September 20th (Brad’s birthday), Brad and I saw the play ‘How to be a Korean Woman’, written and marvelously acted by Sun Mee Chomet. Paula Vesley, a friend of Brad’s, gave the tickets to Brad as a birthday present. (Thank you Paula! We loved it!) Chomet’s play is about a Korean adoptee who finds her birth mother after 38 years.
When she was six months old, Sun Mee’s Korean aunt and uncle gave her over to the adoption agency. Her mother went to get her daughter back, but they lied to her and told her that it was too late. (The adoption agency lied to my Korean mother, too, saying that I would be returned educated and well-fed and that I would not be someone else’s daughter.) And so began Sun Mee Chomet’s journey to the other side of the planet. The play is about reaching back and living forward.
‘How To Be A Korean Woman’ took Brad and I on a profound journey of tears, laughter, hope, and acceptance. Sun Mee had us howling one minute in a Korean shopping center, only to have us cringing the next as she struggles with the adoption officials to find her birth mother. Then she brought us along to her reunion and made us cry. In the end, she left us with sense of hope and acceptance of the way things are rather than the way they should be.
‘How To Be A Korean Woman’ has been produced in Seoul, Korea; Philadelphia, PA; and of course here in the Twin Cities. Sun Mee will be taking her play international soon. Friday night’s show was sold out, absolutely packed. I predict that she will play to similar audiences throughout the world.
Visit her site: http://www.sunmeechomet.com
Songs of My Families 